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Hope to Host National Effort to Develop Materials on Vocation

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Beginning this July, Hope College will broaden its role as a national leader in the
newly-emerging field of vocational exploration.

Hope has been asked by the Washington, D.C.-based Council of Independent Colleges
(CIC) to host the new “Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) Scholarly
Resources Project.” This project is a national effort to produce materials for use
by colleges and universities across the country seeking to help students explore questions
of meaning and purpose as they prepare for life and career.

The college’s selection reflects the success and impact of the CrossRoads Project,
a Hope program that began nine years ago to enhance emphasis at the college on “Thinking
Theologically About Career, Calling, and Life.” The new “NetVUE Scholarly Resources
Project” will be directed by Dr. David Cunningham, who is the founding director of
CrossRoads as well as a professor of religion at Hope. Cunningham has been active
nationally in discussions related to the development of programs on vocational discernment,
including playing a leadership role in establishing the larger NetVUE program of which
the new project is a part.

“CIC is delighted to have the scholarly expertise of David Cunningham guiding this
project,” said CIC president Richard Ekman. “We also are pleased that Hope College
will host this initiative.”

The NetVUE Scholarly Resources Project is designed to facilitate the creation of new
written materials to be used by both faculty and students in achieving a better understanding
of vocational exploration. Over the next four years, Cunningham will coordinate the
work of three separate groups of scholars, each of which will meet on three separate
occasions over the course of about one year. These scholarly seminars will produce
work on the teaching of vocational exploration, on the integration of vocation across
diverse fields of study, and on the role of vocation in a multi-religious world.

The project will be administered by CIC, with funding from a grant by Lilly Endowment
Inc. Office space and other support will be provided by Hope College.

The CrossRoads Project also will continue under Cunningham’s leadership. The college’s
CrossRoads Project began in 2003, when Hope was among the 88 colleges nationwide that
were awarded $2 million grants by the Lilly Endowment Inc. to develop what it called
“Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation.” The program was extended
in 2008 through an additional $500,000 matching grant. CrossRoads develops its own
initiatives focused on vocation and works with other Hope departments to help them
integrate vocational discernment into their programs.

The CrossRoads Project has been highly praised by the Lilly Endowment and has already
played a leadership role among institutions that support and develop programs on vocational
discernment. In 2008, CIC asked Cunningham to help develop NetVUE, an initiative
funded through an initial grant to CIC from the Lilly Endowment Inc. He planned and
directed the group’s first conference, which took place in 2009 in Indianapolis and
was attended by teams from nearly 100 institutions. Today, some 167 institutions
nationwide are members of NetVUE.